44 WINE SPECTATOR • SEPT. 30, 2019
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RTomales Bay Oyster Co. enhance many a raw oyster platter in San
Francisco’s best restaurants. Weekend visitors fill the rustic oyster
bars in the town of Marshall on the eastern shore of the bay, each
venue serving its own roster of oyster types and mussels.
Cheeses here are equally site-specific, such as Original Blue, Toma
and Gouda from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese. The sign at its High-
way 1 entrance, about a mile and a half northwest of Point Reyes
Station, identifies it only as “R. Giacomini Dairy.” Its single-lane
private road climbs over a ridge and dips into a swale that embraces
a cluster of farm buildings. Its raw-milk Original Blue is still made
here. A second, larger plant (not open to visitors) was completed
last year in Petaluma to make the rest of the lineup from flash-
pasteurized milk. All of the farm’s cheeses come from its own cows.
The products, available for tasting by appointment, lean toward
Italian styles. Toma, a semisoft white cheese with a delectably tart
tang to its creamy flavor, heads the list, but the spot-on character
of the Gouda (a reflection of Point Reyes’ Dutch consultant) is
worth seeking out. New York–based cheese specialist Murray’s ages
young Toma wheels to make Cornelia, a unique specialty cheese;
the company buys back a few wheels for visitors to taste.cheeses are made with fresh curds, and they liquefy in the end. Be-
cause the curds are cooked and washed, they’re much more sturdy.
That’s why the cheese holds up. It doesn’t ammoniate or run away
from you like Brie and Camembert does.”
It’s a perfect metaphor for California, embracing ideas from dis-
parate places to create something new and vibrant.
Tasting Cowgirl’s lineup delivers one revelation after another.
Old-fashioned clabbered cottage cheese has startling character.
Hop Along, a washed-rind cheese aged 45 days, feels firm but melts
on the tongue. Wagon Wheel, aged 75 days, tastes like a cross be-
tween Edam and Raclette. Cowgirl Cantina’s fresh tomato soup,
mac ’n’ cheese and roasted Rosie chicken makes a great lunch to
fuel a visitor’s energy to push on to the next stop.
California Highway 1 hugs the coast as it extends about 160
miles beyond Point Reyes to join U.S. 101 halfway to the Oregon
border. Along the bay, secluded cozy inns pop up around curves,
such as the 12 bayside cottages at Nick’s Cove in Marshall, which
has a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for its restaurant.
Bivalves grow in shallow-water farms in the bay between To-
males and Point Reyes. The products of Hog Island Oyster Co. and
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Tomales Farmstead Teleeka
(BLEND) cowgirlcreamery.com A 10-ounce
square, 1 inch thick, this blends goat’s, sheep’s
and cow’s milk into a buttery bloomy-rind soft-
ripened cheese with a pleasantly earthy edge.
Based on Italian La Tur.2
Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk
(COW) cowgirlcreamery.com A California
original, this washed-rind triple-cream acquires
a unique reddish rind and deep flavor. It softens
with age but does not “run” like most
triple-creams.3
Point Reyes Farmstead Toma
(COW) pointreyescheese.com Reminiscent
of a young Italian Asiago, this versatile semisoft
wheel, aged three months, sports mild flavors of
butter and grass, with a distinctive acid tang.4
Vella Golden Bear (COW)
vellacheese.com Vella resurrected Dry
Jack, a California original, and ages this one up
to three years longer. The Parmigiano-like tex-
ture and cow’s milk mellowness lurk under a rind
of cocoa, pepper and vegetable oil.5
Wm. Cofield Bodega Blue (COW)
wmcofieldcheese.com A Sonoma County
answer to England’s Stilton, this majestic blue
cheese, hand-fashioned into tall 6-pound
wheels, combines a beefy sweetness with a
salty, moldy tang.Golden State,
Gold Standards